HOUSTON – Rice senior Katie Jensen highlighted day two of the Houston Invitational for the Rice Owls women’s track & field team with a first place finish in the 3000m, breaking former Owl Lennie Waite’s previous meet record with a winning time of 9:26.80.

Jensen, from The Woodlands, claimed the top C-USA Indoor 3000m mark of the season with a personal best time that translated to 9:21.99 (track adjustment) and is also ranked 17th in the nation. Jensen defeated the next closest runner by nearly 23 full seconds in the race, leading start-to-finish.

In other distance events junior Elsa Racasan finished first in the 28-runner mile with a time of 4:56.61 (track adjustment of 4:53.61) and also currently holds the top C-USA mark. The Owls third winner of the afternoon was sophomore transfer Hannah Jackson, who won the 400m dash for a second straight indoor meet with a time of 57.08 (10th in C-USA). Jackson barely edged out sophomore teammate Bryanna Rideaux, who finished second in a time of 57.45.

The Owls also performed well in the jumps with senior All-American Daisy Ding making her 2017 debut and finishing fourth in the high jump (1.65m/5-05.00) and third in the triple jump (12.33m/40-05.50). Senior Cybil Obiozor, who won the C-USA Co-Female Athlete of the Week award after the opener, improved upon her season-debut in the triple jump with a second place finish of 12.55m (41-02.25).

After a strong performance on Friday, Ijeoma Ugwunze followed it up with a third place finish in the shot put (14.20m/46-07.25).

“We improved from two weeks ago, which is what we needed,” Rice women’s track & field head coach Jim Bevan said. “We had some great highlights today with Elsa dominating the mile, Ijeoma having a good day in the shot put and Hannah Jackson and Bryanah Rideaux going one-two in the 400m. Daisy started competing and scored high in the high/triple jump and Cybil improved her triple jump over two weeks ago and finished second. The biggest highlight was Katie Jensen dominating the 3000m, running a lifetime best and led from gun to wire. It was an extremely impressive performance. Now we can get into weekly rhythm of meets.